Switching current regulators are electronic devices that can manage a steady amount of current flowing through a load. A switching current regulator can switch the load on and off with a switching frequency and can control the load with a lower current or voltage than the load current or voltage. When a switching current regulator is coupled between a power supply and a load, the load is driven in high side mode; when a switching current regulator is coupled between a load and ground or a negative line, the load is driven in low side mode. pMOS (or PNP) transistors can be used for high side mode; while nMOS (or NPN) transistors can be used for low side mode.
Controlling switching current regulators can be useful in load driver systems such as light-emitting-device (LED) driver systems. For example, a switching current regulator can be used to control brightness of a LED by regulating a target current through the LED and flash the LED by switching on/off the LED at a high frequency. The switching current regulator can also be used to individually control current flowing through a plurality of LEDs and flash the LEDs sequentially at a high frequency. To measure the average current through LEDs, some systems use peak values of detected current, which reduces the accuracy of the measurement. In some other systems, a sense resistor is used and added into a load path, which changes the structure of the LED driver circuit.